


blue is my favorite color

by realfakedoors



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Babies, Domestic Fluff, Future Fic, Gen, Inspired by Fanfiction, Marooned Together, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:41:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21989002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realfakedoors/pseuds/realfakedoors
Summary: A miracle of magic and technology, Stevonnie and Lapis were expecting a baby.(Set in the Marooned Together AU)
Relationships: Lapis Lazuli/Stevonnie (Steven Universe)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	blue is my favorite color

**Author's Note:**

  * For [E350tb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/E350tb/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Marooned Together](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14591640) by [E350tb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/E350tb/pseuds/E350tb). 



A miracle of magic and technology, Stevonnie and Lapis were expecting a baby. Well, more specifically, _Lapis_ was expecting a baby, since her gem could provide sufficient energy to sustain both her and the baby at the same time—they’d learned _that_ from a certain former gem monarch-turned-rebel who will remain unnamed. 

Stevonnie wouldn’t be able to successfully carry, they learned, during Peridot’s proverbial field day of trials and errors leading up to their insemination. Despite the almost comically high number of trials and tests Peridot ran, it ended up all coming down to simple mathematics—a baby that was half Stevonnie’s and half Lapis’ DNA would result in a hybrid that was ¾ gem and ¼ human. They both agreed it wasn’t worth risking if there wasn’t a 100% guarantee that Lapis would be fine.

If any gem-human hybrid were to be born, Steven acting as the only frame of reference, they were going to need something to support both species’ life forces without stealing the source of life from the mother, which is really where the key word _inseminate_ comes into play. Modeled after gemtech that was not unlike an injector, Peridot and a fleet of researchers worked to separate out the genetic code of Stevonnie’s human-half, the gem-equivalent of DNA for their ‘Pink Diamond’ gemstone, and the same for Lapis’ lapis lazuli embedded in her back. It may not have been the most… _intimate_ of conceptions (indeed, their baby was very much a _petri dish_ product) but the point was it was successful, the baby would contain half of Lapis’ gem-based DNA and half of Stevonnie’s, meaning it was _theirs._

When it would be born, it would have its very own gemstone as if it’d come from an exit hole of a planet’s surface, drawing life force steadily from Lapis’s gemstone while it grew, but it wouldn’t reach that point of physical maturity in only nine-months. Gem matriculation from the time of injection could take years. With any luck, it would be only an infant; they imagined something like how Amethyst had been when she’d emerged (except, _hopefully_ , smaller).

All that required was Lapis to carry it to term.

“Honey?” Lapis called, laying flat on her back on the ground in their barn.

Stevonnie was fixing up a spot in the ceiling that had begun to leak last time it rained, balancing on a beam near the ceiling with a nail in their mouth, hammer in hand.

“Hm?”

“This sucks and I hate it and I want to die.”

The fusion winced, releasing a sigh through their nose so as not to drop the nail they had secured between their teeth. After quickly securing the piece of wood they had in place, at least enough so they could easily return to it later, Stevonnie leapt down and floated gently to land beside their partner.

“Don’t you think that might be being just a… _tad_ … dramatic?”

“No,” Lapis said, deadpan. Her belly had swelled up to a healthy bump, more than six months into the pregnancy. “My back hurts. My feet are swollen. I refuse to believe that humans would ever submit themselves to this voluntarily. Am I being punished? Tortured?”

“Our species depends on it,” they hummed, a little smile sneaking into their voice. “You’re trying to tell me this baby hasn’t already completely stolen your heart?”

Expression blank, Lapis angled her head up to better see Stevonnie. “Stolen? That would explain why I no longer have any feelings besides wanting to die.”

Sitting down beside the object of their heart and soul, Stevonnie gestured with her hands for Lapis to come closer and the blue gem complied, resting her head in the fusions lap. “Is there anything I can do to help? Do you want to lay down by the sands again? I’ll carry you if you—” 

Lapis snorted, cutting them off. “I can _walk,_ you goof. And even if I couldn’t, I can fly just fine. I’m just—everything is so _uncomfortable._ Does that make sense?”

Lazily, their hands found one of Lapis’ and they intertwined, resting on the ground beside the blue gem’s head.

“It makes perfect sense,” they said, voice soft. “But that doesn’t mean you just have to bear it. Maybe it just feels especially bad right now because there’s nothing to do so it’s all you can think about.”

“I am _not_ going on any missions,” Lapis replied harshly, meeting Stevonnie’s gaze with prickly precision. “Peridot said it’s too risk—”

“I _know_ , I wasn’t going to suggest a mission,” Stevonnie giggled, moving away and crawling on their hands and knees to sit perpendicular to her rounded stomach. They leaned down, placing barely-there kisses over the curvature of her beautiful bump, humming affectionately when Lapis giggled and demanded that they stop. 

Letting out a happy sigh, Stevonnie just curled their hands around the mound of her midsection, heart full of so much love for the gem and their baby—they didn’t know the gender, hadn’t really talked about names, but Stevonnie loved them more than there were stars in the sky. Knowing they were going to be a parent had untethered something that they couldn’t quite explain, opened up an entire new depth of emotion they hadn’t known they even possessed. To love and completely cherish someone without knowing them, and to share that love with their partner alongside them—there weren’t words enough to describe the feeling.

With a semi-dopey grin, lovestruck and awestruck by their blessed little family, Stevonnie sat up. “You’re probably just going stir crazy from sitting around. Why don’t you come with me to New Earth later instead of staying holed up here? I know Peridot said not to _overexert_ yourself, but you can handle a few hours out with just the New Earth folks, right? It could be fun!”

Blue eyes studied them carefully for a moment before Lapis, slowly and heavily, sat up. 

“ _Fun_?” She rested her hands behind her to support her weight, hair adorably amess and expression skeptical. “I’m excited to be a Mom, but nothing about being big and lumpy is _fun_. Going around in public and having people ask us a million questions doesn’t sound _fun_.”

“I promise, it’ll be a good time! Please, Laps, trust me! I’m meeting with Bismuth to talk about renovations for the barn, and that teacher from the school was supposed to give me some stuff to bring back to you to talk about their daycare program and stuff, but I’d much rather just meet with her _with_ you there!” Stevonnie was grinning now, unable to withhold their own excitement at the notion of seeing the folks on New Earth and indulge their own baby fever a bit, and Lapis simply sighed and let their head fall back, staring up at the ceiling.

“... Fine, but only because you’re cute.”

Stevonnie jumped up and let out a brief, “ _nice!_ ” under their breath; they could practically _hear_ Lapis rolling her eyes nearby.

* * *

Lapis wasn’t really in the mood to deal with people—gem _or_ human—but Stevonnie seemed certain this would help. In her defense, at least half of her body’s energy was constantly being redirected to a new, growing life form inside of her, so she felt at least a _little_ justified in not wanting to be around others.

The moment they stepped off the warp pad, Lapis was already regretting her decision. 

“ _Oh god_ —” her hands flew to her mouth. The slightly sulfuric flavor of New Earth’s atmosphere that she’d long since stopped noticing hit her anew with the force of exactly seventeen barns to the stomach, and she turned around and staggered off the warp pad, coughing up stomach bile all over the ground. 

“Lapis! Oh, oh my god, Laps, what’s going on, are you okay?”

She swished some spit around her mouth and houcked it at their feet, shooting a glare to their left. “No, I just thought vomiting was all the rage these days. _Of course I’m not okay—_ ”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were sick, I just thought—here, let’s go back home, you need—”

“Gems don’t get sick, Stevonnie. This is definitely baby-related.” She sighed, counting backwards from ten and trying to will her nausea away. “I’m fine, and we’re already here. It just—I think it’s that morning sickness thing the baby book talked about.”

Clearly having second thoughts, Stevonnie chewed their bottom lip. “Are you sure?”

“ _Yes_ , I’m sure,” Lapis answered, lips thin and eyes narrowed. Thankfully, Stevonnie knew her well enough to back-off—Lapis didn’t care for cosetting, especially when she was already undergoing a lot of outside stimuli. 

With a nod, the fusion took a step back, maintaining only a simple line of contact by keeping hold of Lapis’ hand; though it was a simple gesture, Lapis appreciated having something tangible of Stevonnie to hold, squeezing it back and resting her other hand on the top of her bump before they started in the direction of the tiny New Earth shopping district.

“Soooo, while we’re here,” Stevonnie coughed. “Did you want to maybe talk about the baby’s room? For humans, there's usually a seperate room called a nursery where the baby sleeps and plays and stuff, I think we could build an addition to the barn that work well for that.”

Lapis tilted her head back and forth as she considered that. “Sure, I guess? I don’t know if this baby will really _need_ sleep, though. I feel like all it does is stay awake and kick my insides around.”

“Well, still! They should be _able_ to sleep at the very least, but I’d imagine they’d need to sleep at least sometimes because of the human physiology. So we can ask Bismuth to work on some kind of crib, maybe a toy chest, all the usual stuff.”

“Usual stuff for gems is just... rock… and then you just… _exist_.” Lapis reminded her partner, who snickered and shoot her head.

“ _Yes_ , hon, I’m aware. But we get to decide what’s _usual_ for our baby together, right? I think you’d really like having a nursery for him or her. It’ll be special, something that just says, like— _this is our baby’s room!_ Not just another section of the barn, that’s _our’s._ ”

Before Lapis could respond, a white-hot knife ran down her spine as the baby adjusted. She inhaled sharply, grabbing around to support her lower back, and let out a low groan. 

“Do you think Bismuth can hit me _just_ hard enough not to poof me, but knock me out for the next three months?”

“ _Lapis_!”

She sent her partner a disparaging look. “What about that doctor who treated that blonde girl from Earth—Sadie, right? Do you think she knows how to put gems into a coma?”

“Lapis! Don’t joke about that!”

“Who’s joking,” she muttered under her breath, along with a few colorful curses when a second wave of pain almost buckled her knees.

Instead of bolstering her, Stevonnie turned around when someone called out for them, and Lapis was left clawing at their forearm a little desperately.

“Aye! _Stevonnie! Lapis!_ ” 

Bismuth was jogging up to them before the blue gem could even catch her breath, but she managed to raise her head as the hulking figure of the good-natured blacksmith stopped a few feet short of them.

“How are y’all doing? Wow, look at you Lapis! You look like a proper Mom-to-be.”

She grimaced. “Uh, thanks.”

“Come on,” Bismuth gestured down the block to her forge on the corner. “I hope you guys weren’t waiting around, I was just coming back from fixing up something in Blue Pearl’s apartment. She’s not much of a talker, that one.”

Chuckling, Stevonnie laid a hand on the rainbow-haired gem’s bicep. “No, she’s not. And don’t worry, we only just got here, Bis!”

“Alrighty then, well tell me all about what you’re envisioning for little Lapvonnie 2.0 and we’ll see what we can do! If I was hearing you right last time we talked, ‘Vons,” Bismuth rubbed her chin while Lapis took the chair near the door, resting her eyes, and Stevonnie stood across from the large gem at her workbench desk. “It sounds like the biggest concern is gonna be safety, right?”

“We don’t need any added security,” Lapis chimed in. “If anyone tries to target our home, I have a plan.” Lapis said, a hit of smugness edging into her smile.

“Drowning people who try to stop by isn’t a plan.” Stevonnie admonished with a knowing roll of their eyes.

Sighing, Lapis folded her hands together and rested them on her stomach. “Okay, I no longer have a plan. What would you suggest?”

Bismuth snorted, pulling a few stray ringlets of her hair back into a bun. “Well, this little tyke is probably gonna manifest powers sooner than Steven had, and I don’t know what will happen as far as your different powers might combine, or if there’ll be a completely unique power that corresponds with the gemstone… I’m thinkin’ just an alarm system with reinforced walls and heavy-duty windows.”

“Sounds reasonable to me, that okay with you, Laps?” Stevonnie called back to her.

She shrugged, a little too tired to think of a proper response. “I still like my original idea, but that will work.”

“Oh come on, be sensible for once in your life!” teased their partner, and Lapis peeked open an eye to look at them.

“I resent the implication that I’m alive.”

“You _are_ alive.”

She shook her head and closed her eyes again, barely able to keep herself from smiling. “Only on the outside, dear.”

* * *

Lapis listened as Stevonnie answered Bismuth’s questions about measurements and the sort of foundation they had used all those years ago, rubbing their bump unconsciously. 

This was weird. _Lapis_ felt weird, and patently _not great_ , but they had more capacity for love than they'd ever thought possible in their life now.

Once upon a time she would have spent the rest of time, alone and angry, vengeful and wondering what could have been. How did it happen _she_ was going to be a mother?

A vision filled her imagination, suffused with cloudy, too-bright ideals to be real, but the unrefined shapes and colors were familiar enough and she was exhausted enough to sink into the fantasy just a bit. 

A pale-skinned baby with blue, bushy hair ran to her arms, but before she could pick them up and dot their round cheeks with kisses, tan and muscled arms scooped them both up and spun them around in circles, all laughing in time with the ebb and flow of the ocean’s tide.

How had she made it this far? 

“Hey, Lapis?”

Oh. That’s right. That’s how.

“What do you think of blue for the baby’s room?”

“Blue?” she blinked her eyes open slowly, trying to return to herself and the present. “

“Boy or girl or whatever,” Stevonnie explained, “I think blue would be calming, you know? It’ll remind them of their momma, even if you’re not in the room with them. Plus it’s sort of my favorite color.”

Stifling a laugh, Lapis sighed, smiling happily at the person who filled their world with so much hope.

“I thought pink was your favorite color, you liar.”

“Nah, that was along time ago.” One hand on their hips, Stevonnie pointed with their other hand at Bismuth’s sketched out schematic. “Let’s do blue.”

“Sounds good to me,” hummed the blacksmith. “I think there’s some mumbo-jumbo about blue being calming too.”

“Calming, vaguely murderous, jokes too much about dying,” Stevonnie waved a dismissive hand. “Same difference. I love it either way.”

Lapis looked down, rubbing their thumbs over the curve of her stomach, not for the first time and certainly not the last.

_Blue._

“Yeah… I love it too.”


End file.
